Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution

From Leftypedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 essay collection written by Russian naturalist and Anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. These essays were originally published from 1890 to 1896 in the English periodical The Nineteenth Century and were compiled in opposition to the Malthusian viewpoints being posthumously pushed into the works of Charles Darwin. Kropotkin examines the role of cooperation and reciprocal aid in the works of Darwin and the evolution of man.

Mutual aid among animals

Associations and societies of invertebrates

Mutual aid is a factor in the lives of the creatures who live beneath our feet. Burying beetles are known to bury the corpses of recently dead animals and lay their eggs in the warm underground matter. If the beetle comes across a corpse that is larger than its batch of eggs requires, the beetle sends out the call to other nearby beetles, a range of four to ten beetles then join in and lay eggs in the recently deceased creature. The beetles do not battle for a greater share of egg, instead divvying the fresh corpse up according to needs and wants.

Certain crabs in the Americas join in a massive interconnected swarm to lay eggs. Both in accordance with the seasonal cycles and the principle of safety in numbers.

Associations and societies of birds

The eagle is known to form hunting parties and has been observed divvying up food. The Brazilian kite bird calls upon five or six of its kind when it bites down on more than it can chew. The kite gathers in gangs that are accompanied by the allies of the species, the percnopters. The vultures of the Caspian sea are known as “the sociable vultures" due to the their observed tendency to build three or so nests in a shared collective area. Both the red throated falcon and kestrel gather together and form societies. The falcons of the South Russian have been seen gathered on clear skied days at around four o’clock on each afternoon of the week. They set out on the journey after gathering together and fly towards the target and back in orderly fashion

Associations and societies of mammals

Cats are a typically a solitary independent species that join to form hunting groups (lions, tigers, lions, leopards, etc.) Dogs are famously sociable, wolves included. Federations of wolf packs will have descended upon villages, during the frigid European winters of 1764 to 1767 when this happened on a massive scale. Families of Asian wild dogs have been seen forming packs large enough to take down elephants, rhinoceros, bears and even tigers.

More advanced animals such as monkeys and apes are of course intelligent enough to work together in groups. There are a few apes that have not built complex societies (capuchins, the howling monkeys, orangutans) yet all of these animals have created a structure of family and care. The entire rest of the monkey species (chimpanzees, sakis, mandrills, baboons and so on) not only lookout and care for the pack but are known to take joy in socializing.

The fox is an animal that is by rule solitary but they are incredibly cooperative creatures when it is beneficial. An Artic foxes has been seen throwing food to their pack while taking the stash from the designated hidden high column perches in the midst of panic fueled migrations.

Rodents and the hooved animals are highly cooperative amongst their respective species . Squirrels are inclined towards nesting and gathering as individuals, though they are still inclined towards family life. Squirrels are at their happiest and most secure when two families join. The black squirrels of the western most parts of Europe are known to form packs like wolves and then descend upon the village crops like locusts when forcing overpopulation. Even the feud prone Rat is an animal that is cooperative with their pack while gathering and divvying food. Beavers are rodents that are known to build dams incorporating seasonal water controls and construct domed villages with traditions spanning generations and generations. The hooved animals creatures that migrates en masse, appointing lookouts to be stationed on each side's edge able to alert the massive herd of approaching predators on the outskirts.

Mutual aid among savages

Despite European nobility characterizing less developed societies as places filled with senseless brutality, the people of these less developed societies are renowned for their prosperity and manners.

Bushmen and the Khoisan

The Bushmen (San people) of Southern Africa have not yet developed housing, instead sleeping in holes they have dug in the dirt. These Bushmen live in small tribes (or clans) that have been known to federate, hunt in collectives, democratically participate in the division of spoils; never leaving a man behind. The Bushmen are a hunter gatherer people, taking the bountiful food their homeland provides The Khoisan people are a little more technologically advanced than the related Bushmen. They wear fur from the neck down until it is torn apart by wear and tear; their houses are made with a few sticks with mats covering the empty floors of each room. They have taken to raising and herding livestock to supplement their less fertile lands. They have been recorded caring of a man who had nearly drowned; being cold, they gave the man the man their furs and went without any warmth for the night.

Australian Aborigines and the Papuans

The Australian aborigines buildings are made in the same manner as those built by the Bushmen. They must take whatever food they can get their hands on; eating rancid rotting corpses, even resorting to cannibalism when facing imminent starvation. They had divided Australia into mythologized clans that collectively held land and food in common. Their fishing equipment also being shared amongst the tribe. Christian Missionaries have given reports of aboriginal customs “They are sociable and cheerful; they laugh very much. Rather timid than courageous. Friendship is relatively strong among persons belonging to different tribes, and still stronger within the tribe. A friend will often pay the debt of his friend, the stipulation being that the latter will repay it without interest to the children of the lender. They take care of the ill and the old; old people are never abandoned, and in no case are they killed — unless it be a slave who was ill for a long time. War prisoners are sometimes eaten. The children are very much petted and loved. Old and feeble war prisoners are killed, the others are sold as slaves. They have no religion, no gods, no idols, no authority of any description; the oldest man in the family is the judge. In cases of adultery a fine is paid, and part of it goes to the negoria (the community). The soil is kept in common, but the crop belongs to those who have grown it. They have pottery, and know barter-trade — the custom being that the merchant gives them the goods, whereupon they return to their houses and bring the native goods required by the merchant; if the latter cannot be obtained, the European goods are returned.[89] They are head-hunters, and in so doing they prosecute blood revenge. ‘Sometimes,’ Finsch says, ‘the affair is referred to the Rajah of Namototte, who terminates it by imposing a fine.’” The following describes the Papuans “They are sociable and cheerful; they laugh very much. Rather timid than courageous. Friendship is relatively strong among persons belonging to different tribes, and still stronger within the tribe. A friend will often pay the debt of his friend, the stipulation being that the latter will repay it without interest to the children of the lender. They take care of the ill and the old; old people are never abandoned, and in no case are they killed — unless it be a slave who was ill for a long time. War prisoners are sometimes eaten. The children are very much petted and loved. Old and feeble war prisoners are killed, the others are sold as slaves. They have no religion, no gods, no idols, no authority of any description; the oldest man in the family is the judge. In cases of adultery a fine is paid, and part of it goes to the negoria (the community). The soil is kept in common, but the crop belongs to those who have grown it. They have pottery, and know barter-trade — the custom being that the merchant gives them the goods, whereupon they return to their houses and bring the native goods required by the merchant; if the latter cannot be obtained, the European goods are returned.[89] They are head-hunters, and in so doing they prosecute blood revenge. ‘Sometimes,’ Finsch says, ‘the affair is referred to the Rajah of Namototte, who terminates it by imposing a fine.’”

Eskimos and Aleoutes

Game and fish gathered by the Eskimo belong to the clan. When one man comes into an amount of wealth that would differentiate him from the rest of his tribe the man throws a massive banquet. After the banquet ends, the wealthy man divides his wealth amongst each of his peers. Distribution of wealth takes place seasonally among the Eskimos, with this process beginning with an exhibition of the spoils. The Aleoutes live harsh lives; bathing in the frozen seas of the north, standing barely clothed in defiance of the winds, all this in spite of overwork or starvation. During periods of starvation they make sure to feed their children before themselves. Crime is rare among the Aleoutes and they admit to any done.

The Dayak concept of justice

The Dayak people of Borneo serve as a good example of the savages supposed senseless violence being an exaggeration. The Dayaks are violent head hunters, meaning they take the skulls of their dead enemies. This is because their environment is based on the notion of an eye for an eye and inter-tribal conflict for resources .

Mutual aid among the barbarians

Mutual aid in the medieval city

Workers' self management

The development of the feudal economic system did not destroy the fraternity characterizing Primitive Communism. The developing owning class that was the feudal nobility had succeeded in levying taxes and contracts on the majority in exchange for an allotment of his land being handed over. The majority peasant class still held land collectively and governed themselves independently from the nobility. The lower classes retained their supremacy in the feudal system. If an invading king would leave the peasants lives unaltered, he would be welcomed with open arms. If an invading king planned on destroying self management or wished to break up the collectively held land, the peasants would fight.

Free cities and their success

Feudal nobility was dealt another blow during the ninth and tenth centuries when the invaders from the Urals and France forced nobles to make common cause with the peasants or be killed by horsemen. The nobles and peasants fortified European cities, with the peasants now being able to concentrate on what was now the only pressure on them (the nobility) and not the forever wars beyond the walls. The tenth to twelfth centuries were the products of this positive environment. The twelfth century giving us the Twelfth Century Renaissance and Twelfth Century Rationalism. The fortified cities of Italy had regularly revolted against the local nobility and town guards. Bohemia was a region that allowed both the peasants and nobility to vote. Russian cities elected officials from the Rurik dynasty and held regular meetings with them, even having the power to dismiss them. Many cities in Western and Southern Europe were so peaceful they elected unarmed priests as town guards. From the walled cities outwards, the towns and cities who had struggled with the nobility began winning the fight. The fortified cities like Milan became centers of business during this time. Public forums arose in the cities of France. The church of Bremen was built during the ninth century. Both the monument built to Saint Marc of Venice and the golden dome of Pisa were built within eight years of one another.

The honorable position of labor

Workers were very much honored for the work done among their peers in the cities and trades. Full stomachs were the result of peasants being given pounds upon pounds of bread in each and every region of Europe, life was at its best during the renaissance of the medieval cities. Churches praised the workers who built chapels and the low class manual laborers who held up society in the eyes of god.

Organization of guilds

Guilds were associations of working men who shared a trade. These associations came about as a result of the number of the practiced trades growing and advancing, creating a need to share knowledge and work coming about as a result of the economic development feudalism brought. Guilds had taken the name collegia in ancient Roman society, guilds also found in the older ancient India and Greece. Status distinction existed within the guilds but they were nothing like the class differences between the impoverished peasant class and the land holding nobility. Difference in skill level and experience was what defined guild hierarchy and the teacher student relationship. After seven years a student would graduate and become a master himself and persevere the social mobility of the guild system. Guilds were more than groups of like minded individuals aiding one another and were instead a state within a state. The guild had its own fighters, its own weapons, its own congresses and laws, its own trade agreements, and its own historical traditions. When at war the guild showed up as a separate company with their banners flowing and their guns decorated in gold carvings.

Mutual aid amongst ourselves

The labor unions of the present grew out of the guilds of the past. Striking workers look out for one another and strikes are often held out of only solidarity. Cooperatives are unions of workers who distribute profits democratically in the capitalist market. In the slums off the cities people hold close to each other in the face of adversity. Even hobbyist clubs are organizations where the masses bond.

Appendix